Bears winger Garrett Mitchell, who had a goal and an assist, roused a sellout crowd of 10,502 with a crushing check on Norfolk's Matt Smaby with 7.4 seconds left in the second period. “Of course, I'm looking for it,” Mitchell said. “It's part of my game. If I don't finish that check, it comes back on me. It is what it is. I thought it was a clean hit. There's no repercussion out of it. Just finishing my checks.”

Norfolk goalie Igor Bobkov, who surrendered two goals in the final 2:33, endured a second straight rough third period at Giant Center. On Feb. 10, Hershey erased a 3-0 deficit with three third-period goals, but the Ads ultimately won 4-3 in a shootout.

The Bears have gone 4-1-0-1 against Norfolk. It was Hershey's first win this season in a game it trailed after one period (1-11-0-2).

Bears head coach Mark French on the non-call by referee Nicolas Leduc when defenseman Julien Brouillette was obstructed on a third-period goal by Troy Bodie that gave Norfolk a 2-1 lead: “I thought Bru got, I guess, interfered with with a punch to the face.”

French on Sunday's game with Syracuse, which leads the Eastern Conference with 75 points: “We've got a nice task in front of us tomorrow with Syracuse. We haven't been able to measure ourselves in a while against Syracuse. We haven't played them since November, I believe [Nov. 18]. It will be a good opportunity to see what they're all about.”

Ryan Potulny, who scored 33 goals last season, increased his season total to 12 on his game-winner with 45.1 seconds left. “He's been excellent all year,” French said. “But when we're struggling to score, you often look at Ryan and we needed his production. As he would say, he's a second-half player. He'll remind me of that. That's coming true.”

In addition to Mitchell, Cameron Schilling (0-2-2) and Ryan Stoa (1-1-2) had multi-point games for Hershey.